Asakusa Sword Experience - includes Museum tour Ticket
Recommended by 95% of travelers
Badge of Excellence
Tokyo, Japan
- 2 hours (approx.)
- Offered in: English
Explore our promoted experiences
Overview
What's Included
- Posing with swords in front of a studio or samura-themed backgrounds
- Wearing a Hakama
- Feel like a real samurai
- Free tour of the samurai and ninja museum offered by a tour guides
- Transportation to/from attractions
- Use a real samurai sword
- ！Children under 10 can not enter the samurai venue.！
Meeting and Pickup
Meeting point
- Samurai Ninja Museum Asakusa Tokyo1-chōme-8-13 Nishiasakusa, Taito City, Tokyo 111-0035, Japan
End point
This activity ends back at the meeting point.What To Expect
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Wheelchair accessible
- Near public transportation
- Travelers should have a moderate physical fitness level
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 4 travelers
Supplied by
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Reviews
4.8
based on 317 reviews
Sort by: Most insightful
An absolutely fun and amazing experience. If you are looking for an immersive activity to learn about Japanese Samurai culture and history then this is the place to go. The activities led by the instructor were well paced and very fun to do. He was absolutely brilliant with his instructions as well as his sense of humour and warmth towards us.
The museum tour afterwards was also absolutely amazing. The guide did a phenomenal job of both entertaining and educating the visitors as we toured the exhibits. Honestly she would have made a phenomenal history teacher if she ever decided to become one!
Visiting this museum is a huge reason why I have enjoyed my holiday to Japan thus far!
So much fun and the museum part was very interesting. Woyld definately recommend this experience. Everyone was very helpful.
Great experience, learnt a lot from our guide for the experience. Enjoyed putting on some Samurai Armour and being able to wield the blade. The learning of some fighting moves, the dueling with my partner. The step by Step instruction of attack, and then becoming a Ninja. All very much worthwhile and highly enjoyable.
Try it and enjoy it for yourself.
Ryo-sensei taught our group a kata and then had us fight each other with foam swords. Had a blast and would love to learn more about swordsmanship!
Fantastic experience. Highly recommended for anyone! Great day and lots of facts that I didn't know previously.
We appreciate the crew who made our experience awesome,from Leon who help us dress up like a samurai and took good pictures, Ren who did our educational and fun Samurai history and Koki who performed and taught us Samurai moves and Ninja Star throwing. It was a great experience and I definitely recommend it.
Lots of fun definitely worth going to!!
Do the complete package and it will take about two hours. Right down the street from the biggest temple.
Think they could do with making the groups smaller, trying to take photos was difficult as there was people everywhere. Especially on the first dress up part. You don't use real swords, but the practice was fun regardless, the museum part, probably not the best for children as it's a lot of talking and no interactive displays.
The activity itself is probably 4 stars, but there were just too many people booked and accepted as walk ups. The room is probably large enough for 8-10, but there were over 20 people in along with our family of 5.
Response from Host, Jul 2024
Thank you! We offer this activity multiple times a day, and the average group size is 8 people. Sometimes, groups may have slightly more or fewer participants. While we have a strict limit on group size, we occasionally encounter situations where late arrivals request to join an ongoing session. It's challenging to turn them away, and in these cases, the group size may exceed the limit.
To mitigate this, we encourage latecomers to join later sessions, which typically have fewer participants (around 6-8 people).
We understand your concern about the group size exceeding 10, which is unusual. We want to reassure you that our average group size is 8, and most late sessions have about half the usual number of participants.
We'll take extra precautions to ensure no walk-ins are allowed in sessions with more than 10 attendees and that the group sizes align with the room sizes.
We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.
Learning the moves of how to use a katana with the practice sword was enjoyable. The museum tour was also informative and it was fun throwing the plastic ninja stars.
YOU DO NOT GET TO CUT A TATAMI MAT WITH A REAL KATANA! This was my main reason for doing this tour. Unfortunately, due to a change in law they cannot. It should be removed from the itinerary of included activities!
Fantastic experience that is informative and entertaining for the whole family! Highly recommended. Ryo, Akira and Hector were great! Would return.
Unfortunate parts. Came with my family of 5 assuming we would all be able to do the cutting with the Katana. Was informed after we started that my teenagers (15 & 16) could not participate in the cutting part. Did experience everything else though. Sensei spoke fluent English. Museum guide was a little hard to understand but his English is much better than my Japanese so no complaints. Would’ve picked a different experience if I knew about the age limitation. If they could have participated, then 5 stars.
This samurai museum was really informative. My husband and I booked the sword experience and it was much fun and great for all ages!
There was no tour of the history museum (which is extremely small) as advertised. We were curious to find out about the Samurai history but were told nothing. The photos in Samurai costumes were a bit silly and not taken professionally due to the nature of the background and quality of the costumes. The actual sword cutting was a good and interesting experience. However, a lot of waiting around for the rest of the group to have individual turns and the group was too big.
It was a great experience, we wore the formal clothing and were instructed on the proper way to cut using a 200 year old katana. Highly recommend for friends, couples, solo or family.
Fun, kind and informative staff. Experience was amazing especially the samurai sword class. Pictures and videos turned out amazing too!
The outfits are awesome, puts you in the mood. The Samurai is very serious but also has an excellent sense of humor! The practice with the wooden samurai was very helpful. The real sword is very heavy but even so I managed to cut my target as he wished on the first try.👍😊 Not so my over zealous husband!🤣😂
The cutting with the katana part was sensational! The rest was good too. There was a bit of confusion about the location though.
My husband continues to talk about this experience! He absolutely loved being able to cut the mat, and act as if he were a real samurai! The location is way away from most other things would be the only downside.
A truly enjoyable and educational experience! Do yourself a favor and have some fun. Sign up for the experience at the Samurai Ninja Museum in Asakusa, Tokyo!
We were advised to get there early which we did and the venue wasn't even open. We didn't get a tour as mentioned on the add. The experience was more stressful than fun. Not something I would recommend
Response from Host, Mar 2024
Thank you so much for your review. Regarding your concerns: Opening hours: We assure you that the venue was open at 9:30 am when you arrived, and we're sorry if there was any confusion. I remember seeing your group drinking their coffee in front of the building around that time. We were wondering why they were waiting outside even though the gate was open.
Tour availability: We understand you didn't have time for the history tour after the ninja experience. We offered an earlier arrival time to ensure everyone could participate in both activities. After all 13 members (actually our venue is the only one who can accommodate this large group) I have approached you personally and I asked you if you wanted to join the history tour, I remember your saying that you had to leave because of the time constraints.
Guest experience: While we're surprised by the overall tone of your review, we appreciate the feedback from some members of your group who enjoyed the tour and the complimentary both samurai experience and the ninja experience. Seeing everyone smiling and taking pictures with the samurai master brought us joy, and we strive to replicate that experience for all our guests.
Moving forward: We are always looking for ways to improve, and we appreciate your feedback. We encourage you to contact us directly if you'd like to discuss your experience in more detail. This will allow us to understand your concerns better and see how we can improve our communication and service in the future.
Thank you for your understanding.
Very exciting experience would recommend for anyone guidelines prevent you from gwtting harmed if you follow instructions and the museum ia great
It is overpriced compared to the experience given. We had only 3 minutes of teaching and 2 try for the sword cutting. The instructor seems to be misogynist for women participating to this session.
Response from Host, Nov 2023
We appreciate your feedback, although we're surprised by your experience as it starkly contrasts with other reviews highlighting the value and duration of our sessions. Our standard sword cutting experience spans 90 minutes, encompassing a 30-minute history tour, followed by 30 minutes of comprehensive training on sword techniques and safety, and concluding with 30 minutes for the cutting itself.
It's important to note that every participant is allocated a minimum of two cutting attempts, with the FREE OPTION OF MORE CUTS at the session's conclusion. Additionally, the process of donning the traditional hakama and engaging in our complimentary ninja and samurai services typically takes at least 40-50 minutes.
Regarding your concern about the instructor's behavior, we are deeply troubled as a predominantly female-run business with a team where 65% are women. Upholding a respectful and inclusive environment is paramount to us. We take these allegations seriously and will conduct a thorough investigation.
We encourage you to peruse past customer photos and reviews, many of which commend our instructors for their kindness and professionalism. We apologize for your disappointing experience and assure you that we're committed to addressing these issues to ensure every guest feels welcome and receives the full value of our offerings.
There are quite a few elements to this experience, but the exciting heart of it is the class session with a samurai sword instructor that all feels very authentic and serious. You will certainly be told if you are not grasping, moving or holding the weapon correctly, because everything is building to the spine-tingling moment when you get to hold an actual 400 year old sword and have 2 attempts at trying to slice open a tatami mat. I failed, but that did make this element of the experience any less intense or enjoyable. Then in a separate area you can dress up as a helmeted samurai warrior but the costume is modern plastic and uses clips to fit together; I was expecting something more authentic and did consider deducting a star for this, but on reflection that feels a little childish and unfair to the main event. You also then get a tour of the separate small, 4-roomed samurai museum which the guides make extremely entertaining. Finally there is an opportunity to throw plastic ninja stars at polystyrene targets, which is a bit silly but still enjoyable. Crucially though, that core sword lesson experience is great and has a real frission about it.
My son was so looking forward to the samurai museum and was expecting this experience with excitement. When we arrived at the venue, they told us that only 18year old person is eligible of attending this experience with Katana. I could totally understand this policy to guarantee customers' safety, but it should be mentioned during the booking process. I've booked this trip through the help of Viator's agent, none of them has ever mentioned about this. I've input my son's age from the beginning since we also enjoyed the reduced price as child for other tours. It was such a disappointment.
Response from Host, Nov 2023
We're genuinely sorry to hear about the disappointment you and your son experienced during your visit. We understand how much anticipation was involved, and we regret any inconvenience caused by the age restriction for our Katana experience.
We completely empathize with your frustration regarding the lack of clarity on the age limit during the booking process. At our end, we've made concerted efforts to communicate this requirement prominently on our website to ensure all potential visitors are well-informed before booking.
However, we acknowledge that external booking platforms like Viator may not always relay all specific details as thoroughly as we'd expect. We're sorry if this crucial information was not adequately communicated by their agents, leading to this unfortunate situation.
Your feedback is invaluable, and we appreciate you bringing this to our attention. We sincerely hope that, despite this setback, you and your family can visit us again in the future to explore the other aspects of our museum that cater to all age groups.
We kindly request a reconsideration of your review, as we strive to ensure all guests have a fulfilling experience while visiting us.
Loved this activity.
The staff explained everything fantastically and went in depth into the history of the Samurai. Definitely recommend attending
The tour in the museum was fine, but there was no small group, we were with at least 40 persons in the museum and 25 with the swordcutting. And you have to get in queue for cutting, everybody is watching, what doesnt make it a nice experience and definitely not a 100 euro worth experience.
Response from Host, Nov 2023
We appreciate your feedback regarding your experience at our museum. We've taken your comments seriously and HAVE MOVED TO A BETTER VENUE!!.
Also our experience costs approximately HALF of what other samurai activities. Differnet from anywhere else we also offer free a history tour, access to artifacts, a ninja experience, the opportunity to dress as a samurai, and the use of an authentic Edo period katana.
Regarding the group size, we acknowledge that during peak seasons or rainy days, there might have been larger groups. However, we've recently relocated to a more spacious outdoor setting and have significantly increased the number of tours to accommodate smaller groups. These changes are aimed at ensuring a more intimate and enjoyable experience for all participants.
We genuinely value your input, and we hope that these improvements address the concerns you've raised. We invite you to revisit us and experience the enhancements we've made firsthand. Your satisfaction is our priority, and we're committed to delivering a more fulfilling and immersive experience.
This experience was very informative of the history of the samurai and how to properly use a katana. The speaker that led us through the history was very well spoken and funny. We also got use some ninja stars, although only plastic to prevent serious injury. The katana slicing was extremely fun and the teacher did a very good job of demonstrating how to use one. I would definitely recommend this experience for people interested in the samurai history and slicing things with a real samurai sword!
The guide (Santo I think his name was, apologies if I've got his name wrong), made the tour very enjoyable. Enjoyed the sword and shuriken throwing as well as the history.
Highly recommend it to anyone thinking of doing it.
It was great and all instructors were awesome at what they do. Recommend this for couples and group of people that have not tried the experience before
Member Pricing
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$73.45
per personWas $77.32(-5%)
up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)
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Asakusa Sword Experience - includes Museum tour Ticket
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